GP Bulletin - January 2017

New era beckons as Pathology Services ‘come home’

January 2017 marked an exciting new era for BTHFT whereby the first phase of our new pathology service went live. This stage consisted of blood sciences (which includes Biochemistry, Haematology, Coagulation and Transfusion) transferring from Leeds to the new Bradford-Airedale joint venture. This will be the first time in many years that the pathology service has been operated by BTHFT.

Given the importance and scale of the transfer, we are making every effort to minimise any disruption to our clinical services. Inpatient testing will be prioritised in order to maintain turnaround times to support acute care and patient flow.

In order to allow the remodelling of the laboratories to be completed, the various key strands of our new service will be phased in over several months. Service transition started with Blood Sciences and will be followed by Microbiology and Histopathology over the coming months.

First class work of Bradford ophthalmology service catches eye of judges in national competition

The ‘first class’ work of Bradford Teaching Hospitals’ ophthalmology service has been recognised by not just one - but two - prestigious national awards. The accolades have come from the Bayer Awards Programme which has announced its 2016 Ophthalmology Honours in a ceremony held at the Royal College of Surgeons in London and hosted by Paralympian and former world record holder, Danny Crates.Read more…

Major High Street retail outlets and new reception opened in BRI

We’re delighted to report that our new retail outlets are now open. Operated by Compass, these include Costa Coffee, Marks and Spencer Simply Food, Amigo newsagents and Lifestyles dining room. The Marks & Spencer outlet features an in-store bakery department, and will also offer click and collect services. The mall area which runs between the retail outlets will have plenty of seating areas and we will also have an outside deck area served from the Costa outlet and from the main mall, which will be open for use when weather permits.

Our new main reception is also now open which will serve both the main entrance and soon the new accessible entrance from Smith Lane. The accessible entrance from Smith Lane will open in the coming months and will link both sides of the site.

This will provide much-needed parking for blue badge holders close to the entrance, making the Smith Lane side of the site fully accessible for wheelchairs for the first time. Another exciting part of the revamped main entrance area will be our new Information Centre. This new facility has been provided where The Hub café used to be positioned, and will be run entirely by our volunteers. Here anyone can seek assistance from trained volunteers on all aspects of the services provided by us - right from finding your way to a department to gaining information on visiting times, or finding out about our Bradford Hospitals Charity.

This is a very exciting opportunity for us and the new outlets and reception area will greatly enhance the experience of our patients, visitors and staff; these are modern services for a modern hospital and complement our new hospital wing.

Clinical services poised to transfer to new wing

We would also like to update you on how the rest of our new £28m wing is progressing - and share dates when we can all look forward to launching clinical services from its first-class facilities. Whilst we recognise that this project has encountered some delays on site, it is pleasing to note that the first part of the development was handed over to us earlier this month. In terms of the new wards being created, the Elderly Care Ward (opposite Ward 23) is close to completion and will be occupied by our patients on 27 January.

This ward has a dementia-friendly design, with seating areas for patients and also a relatives room where a family member who assists with caring for a close relative can stay overnight. Following its opening, our focus will switch to completing the new Intensive Care Unit. This provides a 16-bed single room facility for our most poorly patients to be cared for in fit-for-purpose, modern facilities. The new Children’s & Young Persons' facilities will then be completed and occupied in March (following a minor refurbishment of Ward 30 to make this child friendly).

This facility has been partly designed by our child patients who have been integral in the design and how the place should feel. Our new facilities for children and young persons will be some of the very best in the region. They will be full of enhancements to help our patients and families feel at home - such as drop-down beds for a parent or guardian to stay alongside their child, activity rooms, a multi-sensory room, and a lounge for our older children to relax with their peers. The new hospital wing project will be fully completed by mid-March and will become a real focal point.

Following on from the success of our first annual Bereavement Conference last year, a second one is now planned. This will be held on Monday, 13 March at 9am and this year’s theme will be “Bereavement Support: Striving for Excellence”.

There will be inspiring speakers, useful workshops and the opportunity to network with colleagues and share ideas around improving bereavement support. Last year, more than 100 health and counselling professionals from across the district and beyond took part in our inaugural annual Bereavement Conference, the aim of which was sharing what we know and knowing who to ask when a patient is dying or a family has been bereaved.

The key note speaker is Professor Allan Kellehear from the University of Bradford who will be presenting the subject ''Building Compassionate Societies'. Workshops on "Building Trust" and "Spiritual or Religious - What's the difference?" are also planned with the latter being led by Marie Curie.

Muslim Chaplain, Shaheen Kauser, said of last year’s event: “Participants felt it was a great networking event. They had the opportunity to find out lots of information from different groups whose work is invaluable to bereavement support. They were able to take this back to their wards and organisations to share for the benefit of the patients and their families. We are now hoping to build on this work for our second conference which will help us to keep moving forward in providing excellent end-of-life care which will lead to a better service and patient experience.”

Our second annual conference will now build on the success of the first so please save the date. To book a free place please contact Louise.Clarkson@bthft.nhs.uk or ring 01274 273519.

This monthly bulletin aims to keep local GPs up to date with the trust’s new services and developments. If you’d like any further information about any of the items in this month’s briefing contact Naveed Saddique on 01274 272635, email gp.comments@bthft.nhs.uk